this time it's personal

Thankful Thursday–Don Juan in New York

The Valley is filled with former New Yorkers and it seems that almost everyone I know goes to the City on a regular basis. A lot of our friends grew up in New York or Long Island and still have family to visit or a place to crash. Even more folks have spent creative time in the City for college or after. We don’t have connections such as these, which is probably the main reason we rarely go to New York. It costs a pretty penny to stay in Manhattan. I’m not complaining. I realize how lucky we are to get to do any of the things we get to do. Very grateful to live so close.

This being my eldest offspring’s birthday week and her requesting a trip to the Met (ropolitan Opera, that is), we went Tuesday night to see Don Giovanni. My mother loves the opera and she gave us tickets as a birthday present.

It was truly thrilling to see an opera again. I do wish the whole production were about a half-hour shorter (‘GADS, I know that is a taboo admission) and I didn’t love everything, but dang it all, it’s the MET, so dislike is relative. Everything is big and fabulous, including the patrons. The set was amazing; the costumes were decent, though not particularly unique. Our Don Giovanni was excellent–his theatricality, his physicality, his voice; Leporello was great, though he seemed to tire toward the end. I loved the story, the orchestra, the Mozart score, the libretto. Some of the singers were outstanding; some not quite as good. This was my first DG and if I ever get to see it again, I hope to be more familiar with the text. Favorite line? He likes them plump in the winter, thin in the summer. Or maybe that was the most sexist line?

I did get a little crush on Don Giovanni (a rapist and murderer, WTF is wrong with me?) and his servant, Leporello, the more witless but noble of the two. Of course, DG, aka, Don Juan, is presented as a rapist in a couple of scenes, but he is also so charming and talented that he counts his “conquests” into the thousands.

It’s all pretty sick, the culture of rape and the celebration thereof, but DG does use masterful flattery with at least some of these women and who can resist the promise of skilled lovemaking? Surely not I. Hence the crush. Oh, and those billowy pants and shirts, long hair and feathered hats, leather boots and sword play.

But opera is not just for women. Something to please even Hubby, the Commendatore scene featured actual pyrotechnics. FIRE on stage in a Met production! Drag me to hell with Don Giovanni, please, or leave me on stage cowering with Leporello. Either would be fine.

By my next Don Giovanni, I hope to have mastered Italian, but rather than actually taking a course, I wish to wake tomorrow morning with the gift of it flowing from my tongue and spilling out of my mouth, like honeyed nectar (I threw that in because I just read that the Italians love their similes. Who cares if mine is sucks?).

de rigueur photo of me at Lincoln Center

What other fabulous things did we do in the city? One highlight was visiting a couple of old Ohio friends. We don’t see them enough though we live much closer to them here than when we were still living in Kent, O. We only see them about once every 3 years (city folks are harder to get into the Valley than the other way around).

We, at least my youngest and I, loved seeing the sculptures by Peter Woytuk along Broadway. I think we caught about 6 of them.

I really liked a little “French” restaurant we popped into for lunch one day. I put French in quotation marks because it was French more in its desire to be French than in its execution. It did have a lovely tiled floor and lovely studded chairs made for tiny French butts. However, the eggs they served were made without, wait for it

BUTTER

The horror! Since when don’t the French use butter to cook their eggs? This was an outrage, but judging from the neighborhood, the public must have demanded it. All jogging pants and yoga mats and expensive bikes and thin and nannies…

Here is a display of chocolate bars in the pastry window

Here is the wicked cool garbage can in the bathroom

Here is me in the bathroom. Not the greatest bathroom I’ve ever peed in, but rather fun

I do try to avoid pimping Hubby and the kiddies by putting photos of them on my blog, but I’m allowed to pimp myself to my captive audience, oui?

Here’s the famous Commendatore scene from Don Giovanni, in case you don’t believe me about the fire. This Commendatore was not the same as in our cast (nor is this DG or Leporello–I liked the two from our cast better than these two). This Commendatore is GREAT. Ours was not as strong in presence or voice.

8 Responses

I think if you don’t get a crush on DG despite the whole rape thing, he’s playing the part wrong. I also think it’s obvious by the plot that he’s not supposed to be a good guy at all.

And also, when I went to Figaro, enthralled as I was and much as I would never question Herr Mozart, I wished the whole thing was a bit shorter. Maybe we don’t need to go back and forth and back and forth quite so much, guys? So I can get home before midnight?

YES, Katharine, yes! You make a good point about how the part is played. What a role. What a man.

Perhaps we can start a revolution to hack 1/2 and hour off of every opera (it seems to me that The Magic Flute also got quite draggy. The only other one I’ve seen is The Barber of Seville and I don’t remember that one feeling quite as long). On the other hand, you pay 200 bucks a pop (give or take) and you want your money’s worth. I did see my husband doze for a few minutes. Who knows? The partners that have been dragged along may appreciate the extra nap time.

My worry then would be that the next generation would slice off another half hour, and then another, until we’re left with the highlights only instead of the whole butt-numbing experience. So I put up with it and secretly hope for modern, shorter operas that are as good as the old long ones. Ha ha. Ha.

I saw Lucia di Lammermoor at the Kennedy Center this winter and MY GOD. Emotionally I wanted to sit through it all over again as soon as it was over, even if the editor in me wanted to whack off a good bit of it that I found intellectually unnecessary. But when I saw Vanessa, I thought it was a bit superfluous. Like, maybe two and a half hours superfluous.

You can’t go by me, though. I just enjoy opera, I don’t know anything about it technically.

Pretty cool Twink. While I enjoy listening to opera while doing something else, not sure I could sit through an entire production. But ya know, it was the Met so I would have had to persevere.
Now, as far as your eggs not being cooked in butter, ol’ Mayor Bloomberg is kinda high on the idea of “I know what’s best for you”. Consequently, it may have been the mayor who decided you cannot have your eggs cooked in butter –
During a United Nations General Assembly summit on non-communicable diseases — a discussion that included diet and eating habits — New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg said “governments at all levels must make healthy solutions the default social option.” Hey Mike, Jon Moore says Fuck You.
Twink, you and the family have a great weekend.

I couldn’t find any laws about not being able to use butter, but I did see that restaurants are supposed to post calorie counts. I do think they banned artificial trans-fats, too, which means butter is not included. Judging from the quick slice of pizza that my kids grabbed down in the Village on Wednesday, I say the artificial ban might not have gone through or else what the hell was the grease floating around on top of the pie?

My aunt used to have a little sign in her kitchen that said “Food should be cooked with butter and love” Everyone knows butter is good for you and makes you beautiful. Just look at Nigella Lawson. Although I see she’s dropped a few pounds. My husband will be crushed.

I am sure we differ, Mr. A Dog, on where and when the gov’t should intervene in our lives. If the protections weren’t so abundantly on the side of big business, including agri-business conglomerates that sling the latest crappy artificial food product at consumers for nothing but greater profit without regard to the health of the land and its people, I wouldn’t react so strongly. But there are so many lobbies protecting unhealthy industries that I have to wonder if asking for protecting real food is such a bad thing. It’s a bit of a different issue than the one simply banning artificial trans-fats in NYC restaurants. I’m not sure how I feel about that. It seems a bit of a ruse, keeping our eye on the wrong thing and not addressing the problem at its source.
There’s a growing grass roots movement to switch to home-grown foods, farmer’s markets, neighborhood chickens, goats, sheep, rabbits.You’ve got Monsanto patenting its GMO seeds for plants that then only respond to Monsanto’s pesticides. Taking it to the Third World. I think it’s fucking evil. Here in the US, Monsanto’s pollen blows in the wind onto organic farmer’s crops. You’ve got the dairy industry spending money fighting small, individually-owned dairy farms and cooperatives by trying to ban raw milk.
I’m no libertarian. I want the gov’t involved in many parts of my life, but not a lot of other parts….what to do? What is the best way, what is the lesser of all evils of governance? What about corruption?
Democracy is majority rule. It does not say each person gets his or her way. Of course, even this is flawed because of the electoral college. Here in Amherst, we’ve got Town Meeting. It’s supposed to be a representative government, but not each person gets a vote in regard to town laws.

Oh–I think you’d like to see an opera more than you might think. It’s such high entertainment, but as stated, they last a little long. Are you a good napper?
I don’t listen to it in my car, but I wish I did. How silly is that?

A good napper you ask. Let me just say, I once fell asleep at an AB’s concert at Cleveland Public Hall where we were fortunate enough to have fifth row center tickets.
Now, briefly to the other. Your answer is found in your question. “What is the best way, what is the lesser of all evils of governance?” the answer being less governance of course. It certainly would be an interesting trip back to Ohio together for the Mac’s Backs event.

alpha–AB’s? What am I missing here? My brain can’t connect that to any band (can’t connect A to B, ha ha!).
I don’t agree that we simply need less government. I don’t think it’s an equation. I wouldn’t mind to live in Sweden or Norway. (All those strapping blond men with blue eyes as a bonus). It’s complicated. To extricate ourselves out of the situation we are in seems impossible. Yes, less of some of the behemoth that has become our federal gov’t, but not to throw the baby out with the bath water. I actually want a lot of gov’t that you probably oppose. I think all political commentary should be saved for O’Brien’s blog any way.

Katharine–I am enjoying your input about opera. It sounds like you have experienced a lot of it. There’s some tendency for us to doubt our level of knowledge–I know I do it and I hear you doing it. I actually know more than I think. Who the fuck cares anyway? I’ve gotta to take a more confident stance when it comes to these matters.